Full backup before reset?

Nelviticus · Oct 17, 2012

My Prime has been very sluggish since updating it to Jellybean so I want to do a factory reset, but I have absolutely bucketloads of stuff on it, including hundreds of MB of 'extra' files for apps like Mass Effect Infiltrator, Bard's Tale and so on. According to the settings I have over 20GB of content in Internal Storage.

If I reset I'll have to re-download all this, plus I'll probably lose progress/saves in some apps as that's not always backed up.

Is there a good way that I can back this stuff up so I don't have to re-download/lose it when I do a reset? My device is not rooted.

Thanks

andygu3 · Oct 18, 2012

There are a few apps in the play store that can back up information but nothing is better than Titanium Backup unfortunately you're not rooted. My back up pro might be what you're looking for, I believe it can backup app data.

Nelviticus · Oct 20, 2012

Thanks, I'll give that a go but I reckon it won't back up the big data files from the games. I'll do some manual copying & pasting in the file explorer first just in case.

dierna · Oct 21, 2012

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that My Backup Pro will only backup app data if you're rooted.

dierna · Oct 21, 2012

Nelviticus said:
My Prime has been very sluggish since updating it to Jellybean so I want to do a factory reset, but I have absolutely bucketloads of stuff on it, including hundreds of MB of 'extra' files for apps like Mass Effect Infiltrator, Bard's Tale and so on. According to the settings I have over 20GB of content in Internal Storage.

If I reset I'll have to re-download all this, plus I'll probably lose progress/saves in some apps as that's not always backed up.

Is there a good way that I can back this stuff up so I don't have to re-download/lose it when I do a reset? My device is not rooted.

Thanks

I'm having the same problem with my Prime being sluggish and laggy since upgrading to JB. I am probably going to have to root it to save my app data - I've done loads of research in the last few days, and everything I read says that accessing the app data files requires root, so if you're not rooted, it is impossible to back up your games, etc.

I'm a bit scared to root, to be honest. I've never rooted, but the tablet is driving me nuts right now. I don't want to lose all of my game progress (okay, I don't care, but my kids will, and I don't want to deal with the meltdowns and whining), but doing a cold boot did not solve the problem, and a factory reset is the next step.

Nelviticus · Oct 22, 2012

If you install ES File Explorer you can actually go one level up from where you can get to with the built-in File Manager. I'm going to copy everything from that level to a folder on my SD card and cross my fingers.

However I've just tried creating a test text file at the top level and it wouldn't let me, so I may not be able to copy everything back again.

Nelviticus · Oct 24, 2012

Been doing a bit of fiddling around and you can actually back up quite a lot with built-in software and ES File Explorer.

Asus' own App Backup can back up the application files (.apk's) and/or the settings for most apps to a single encrypted file. It's a bit limited in that it backs them up to internal USB storage so you have to have enough room there, but it also copies the backup to external storage (e.g. Micro SD, SD or USB stick) if you have it. It backs up to a single file with a limit of 2GB so I had to split mine into two backups.

ES File Explorer has a function called 'App Manager' which lets you back up the individual .apk files to wherever you like (although there are a small number that it doesn't seem to be able to back up).

Neither of these methods backs up the huge additional downloads that some games etc. require, so I used ES File Explorer to copy my whole 'sdcard' folder (which is the internal USB storage) to a folder on my SD card.

Hopefully, with all of that plus Android's built-in backup syncing I should be OK.

Time to give it a go ...

dierna · Oct 24, 2012

Nelviticus said:
Been doing a bit of fiddling around and you can actually back up quite a lot with built-in software and ES File Explorer.

Asus' own App Backup can back up the application files (.apk's) and/or the settings for most apps to a single encrypted file. It's a bit limited in that it backs them up to internal USB storage so you have to have enough room there, but it also copies the backup to external storage (e.g. Micro SD, SD or USB stick) if you have it. It backs up to a single file with a limit of 2GB so I had to split mine into two backups.

ES File Explorer has a function called 'App Manager' which lets you back up the individual .apk files to wherever you like (although there are a small number that it doesn't seem to be able to back up).

Neither of these methods backs up the huge additional downloads that some games etc. require, so I used ES File Explorer to copy my whole 'sdcard' folder (which is the internal USB storage) to a folder on my SD card.

Hopefully, with all of that plus Android's built-in backup syncing I should be OK.

Time to give it a go ...

Good luck. I believe you'll lose your game progress and have to start from the beginning again. The apk files will allow you to reinstall the games and other apps even if they're not in the market anymore, but they won't save your progress and high scores.

How is your tablet running after the reset?

Nelviticus · Oct 25, 2012

It's definitely running much better - for example, the 'Google' link in the top-left always responded sluggishly, took ages to search and didn't show results previews as I was typing - now it works like a charm. Also, I never had the 'system bar lock' icon before.

The Asus 'App Backup' app does back up your settings. You can choose to back up either apps + data (= big files) or just data. I'm paranoid so I chose both, but I only needed the first one.

I ended up not needing the apps I'd backed up to .apk's with ES File Explorer as Asus App Backup took care of those, but I did use the copy of the 'sdcard' folder that I'd taken. Some apps store their settings here and games that download huge additional files seem to store them in the 'Android' sub-folder. Restoring this has meant that I haven't had to re-download content for things like Shadowgun and Bard's Tale.

My progress in most games seems to have been preserved with the only exception that I've found so far being Bard's Tale, although I'd only just started that. It might be in a folder under sdcard that I haven't restored yet.

All in all though it's gone rather well.

theandies · Dec 4, 2012

^^^
That's good news. I've backed up all my game apps + data with Asus app backup before I RMA's for the green camera problem thinking the repair center may wipe all my data. Well they just replaced the hardware and my tablet came back with my data intact so I've not used my backup file. I'm did think of doing a factory reset from reading the thread on XDA about doing that after the JB update but have not since my device is working great. Glad to see Asus backup works.

George Brent · May 13, 2013

Full backup before reset?

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